2012年6月13日 星期三

Japan official pushes to buy disputed islands

Japan official pushes to buy disputed islands

(CNN) -- Japanese national pride has attracted $14
million and counting. That's how much citizens have chipped into a
public fund to buy a set of islands the Japanese say is rightfully
theirs.

The islands, known as
Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have been a diplomatic and
emotional wedge between the two Asian superpowers, as both countries lay
claims to the five uninhabited rocky islets in the East China Sea.

The dispute, which dates back decades, came to a boiling point in 2010
when a Chinese fishing trawler rammed into a Japan Coast Guard vessel on
patrol in the island's waters. Japan detained the crew but later
released them under Chinese diplomatic and trade pressure.

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara never got over that dispute and his
national government's response, which he characterizes as "weak."
Ishihara, an unrepentant nationalist who is loudly anti-China, said when
it comes to the islands, China is acting like "a burglar in Japan's
house."

"Chinese hegemony is totally intolerable to us," said Ishihara. "We do
not want to become a second Tibet and Mongolia. We have no intention of
becoming China's annex. We shall stop China, who is coming to steal our
land."

Driven by that nationalist fury, Ishihara cooked up a plan with a family,
who claims to own four of the five disputed islands. That family, the
Kuriharas, says it has documents showing the islands' Japanese ownership
dating back to 1890.

Ishihara established a
public fund for donors to send in money to the Tokyo metropolitan
government. The city of Tokyo would eventually use that money to buy the
islands from the Kurihara family, turning them from private Japanese
property into government property. Hiroyuki Kurihara said his family
would sell the islands to Tokyo's government, calling a sale in his
country's "national interest."

"It's not possible for my
family to keep protecting the island, considering the territorial
issue," he said. Kurihara added that as owners, the Tokyo or national
government would "protect the island in an appropriate way" from China.

Kurihara and Tokyo's
governor announced the public fund last month. Ishihara said he expected
to raise eyebrows and make a point to China about Japan's interest in
the islands. He said he didn't expect a flood of money.

The fund has raised the equivalent of $14 million and it continues to grow daily.

Ishihara said Japan was
not alone in a territory dispute with a rising China, pointing to
Vietnam and the Philippines. He called his national leaders unable to
defend Japan's interests in the face of China's rising economic
prominence.

"That's why Japanese politicians are weak to China," he said. "They are spoiled by Chinese money."

Ishihara dismissed the idea of compromising on the islands to maintain a healthy economic partnership with China as "nonsense."

"That's what people with
no pride say," he said. Ishihara said his public fund shows how
Japanese people really feel about China.

Chinese Foreign Minister
spokesman Liu Weimin dismissed Ishihara's actions. "The Diaoyu Islands
are China's territory since ancient times," he said. "Some Japanese
politicians have been making trouble, but their actions won't alter the
fact that the islands belong to China. The willful talk and action of
some Japanese politicians is irresponsible and tarnish and smears
Japan's reputation."

Ishihara, who has long
reveled in sticking a thumb in China's eye, continues to ruffle feathers
by maintaining events like the Nanjing (Nanking) massacre in 1937never
happened. Historians say hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and
unarmed soldiers were murdered and raped following the Japanese capture
of the city of Nanjing during the second Sino-Japanese war. But
Ishihara says China is twisting history and calls the claim of mass
murder by the Japanese as "nonsense."

Neither Ishihara nor the
Kurihara family will say when the sale of the islands to Tokyo's
government will take place. It's unclear how much impact, if any, the
sale will have on the island dispute with China. Ishihara said at a
minimum, it's shown him that the Japanese people are more like him and
less like his compromising national government.

"I am surprised and I am
very happy," said Ishihara, beaming from his Tokyo governor's office.
"Very happy. I am happy and it reaffirms that I can trust the Japanese
people."

chip in

To contribute money or labor: We all chipped in for beer.

To interrupt with comments; interject.

To put up chips or money as one's bet in poker and other games.

get over it

1.
Overcome, surmount, as in We have finally gotten over our biases. "Late 1600s"
2.
Recover from, as in I just got over the flu, or I hope the children get over their parents' divorce quickly. [c. 1700] This usage sometimes appears as get over it, as on a bumper sticker following the 1992 presidential election: "Bush Lost, Get Over It."
3.
Also,
get over with. Complete, have done with, especially something unpleasant. For example, When I finally got the proofreading over, I was ready for a day off, or I'm glad to get all that dental work over with. It also is put as
get it over with, as in I might as well sign the check and get it over with. The first usage dates from the late 1800s, the second from the early 1800s.